The Columbus Redevelopment Commission Monday agreed to provide Bartholomew Consolidated School Corp. with a $1 million grant to fund three of the corporation’s workforce development initiatives.
Chad Phillips, superintendent, and Brett Boezeman, assistant superintendent for finance and operations, came before the commission to provide some details as to how the annual grant has impacted thousands of students in what officials have called a truly unique partnership.
Redevelopment has provided the grant since 2017, and raised its contribution from $750,000 to $1 million in 2022.
The grant includes $330,500 for i-Grad, $267,397 for transitional programs for students with disabilities and $402,103 for STEM initiatives, particularly on the elementary level. The amounts have remained the same since 2022.
The contribution will still need final approval by Columbus City Council members because it’s a city expenditure greater than $500,000.
i-Grad, formerly a partnership with the Ivy Tech Foundation, provides students in grades 7-12 who are identified as at-risk with academic support and mentoring.
i-Grad completely came under the BCSC umbrella this year after Ivy Tech gave up control and ownership of the program. The $330,500 primarily goes towards paying i-Grad coaches.
“Because of those changes with Ivy Tech, and those employees (i-Grad coaches) becoming ours, we were able to actually add more coaches at a part-time level,” Phillips said, adding each of the district’s middle schools now has their own i-Grad coach.
Last school year, all of the 674 students in i-Grad were able to obtain their diploma.
Phillips referenced a slide showing a nine point improvement in graduation rates between 2022 and 2024 to 90.1% as a reflection of the continued impact of both i-Grad and the district’s team cohort model.
“A lot of that is due to the work those i-Grad coaches do with a small group of students who need extra support throughout the day,” Phillips said.
Looking forward, Phillips showed projections presented to the school board on Monday that show graduation rate projections of 92.4% for 2025, the highest gradation rate for BCSC in at least 20 years. Projections show graduation rates of 95.5% in 2026, 95.7% in 2027 and 93% in 2028.
BCSC’s transition programs have the aim of helping students with disabilities transition into either the workforce or post-secondary opportunities. According to the school corporation, 1,018 students have been helped by BCSC’s transition program since 2017.
The transition program money will also go towards the Empower Program, a collaboration between BCSC, Ivy Tech, IU Columbus, the Community Education Coalition (CEC) and Purdue Polytechnic to provide students with disabilities aged 18-22 the ability to take part in the 1 to 2 year transition program on the AirPark campus.
There, the students are able to gain adult skills and live independently, while also developing skills that will help them in the workforce.
The $402,103 for STEM primarily goes towards the district’s STEM labs, where students K-6 take part in a hands-on STEM lab taught by a certified teacher one day per week, just as they would do for art, music or PE.
The funds pay about 50% of the salaries for BCSC’s 10 elementary STEM teachers.
The STEM dollars also fuel special events such as the recent “Girl-Up” night for to inspire fifth- and sixth-grade girls to pursue careers in STEM, along with the district’s fast-growing VEX-robotics program.
The funding also supports another Ivy Tech partnership for CSA New Tech students, who can choose an information technology pathway that could allow them to leave the school already equipped with more than 30 college credits.
Overall, the redevelopment grant has impacted 13,545 students since 2017, according to BCSC.